Volkswagen profits race ahead

AGENCIESJul 27, 2007, 04.35pm IST

BERLIN: Volkswagen, the biggest European car maker, reported a 41.8-per cent rise in quarterly net profit on Friday, saying this would enable it to meet its pre-tax profit target of 5.1-billion-euros a year early.

Volkswagen said that net profit in the second quarter had surged on strong sales to 1.2 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars) from the equivalent figure last year.

The car maker said it now counted on "a clear increase" in operating profits for 2007 whereas it hard earlier cautiously spoken of a "probable" rise.

It said it was also set to achieve a pre-tax profit for the whole of the year of 5.1 billion euros (6.9 billion dollars), a year earlier than it had planned.

This was because this year unit sales by the group, the world's fourth-biggest car maker, were expected to reach a record high level of six million units.